Friday 14 March 2014

the will of the people, then and now

what is the name of that rule about the length of time it takes in any online debate before you get called a Nazi? No doubt someone will remind me. I don't really care though - either what the rule is called or whether anyone calls me a Nazi.

The notion of democracy often comes into those debates too. Hitler, it is said, was democratically elected. Er, so that's all right then? The Holocaust and all? Hamas, it is said of more recent times, was democratically elected too. Oh, OK. So the terror attacks - oh, please yourselves.

Let's shed a little light. It is interesting to discover, as I have this week, that the 1930s President of Germany, Hindenberg, who died in 1934, left a will, later destroyed, whose contents were known to at least one person other than the Nazis, and whose contents, as reported, have now come to light. From The Times (£) today, this: (editorial errors - were the subs having an off day, or don't they have subs any more? all theirs)

Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934. A few hours later, the Reich Government announced that the offices of president and chancellor would now been combined under Hitler, as the supreme Führer. A plebiscite was called, to allow the German people to express its collective opinion of Hitler’s unprecedented new role as both head of the government and head of state.
Hitler got wind of the existence of the will, and gave orders to “ensure that this document comes into my possession as soon as possible”. Colonel Oskar von Hindenburg, son of the late President but a loyal Nazi, duly handed his father’s will over. It has never been found.
Four days before the plebiscite, however, the Nazis announced the discovery of Hindenburg’s “political testament”, which gave an account of his political career and included complimentary references to Hitler; it may have been a forgery.
Hindenburg’s apparent endorsement of Hitler from beyond the grave came at a crucial moment. On August 19, 1934, a fortnight after Hindenburg’s death, some 38 million German voters approved Hitler’s usurpation of power, with fewer than five million voting against it. The following day, the Nazis brought in the mandatory oath of loyalty for every member of the German army. Hitler was now all-powerful.
Why then, Hitler's assumption of absolute power was done by the will of the people, through democracy, I hear you cry. (Hamas did it by throwing the opposition out of windows, but that is another story). Er, no. Democracy and a plebiscite are not the same thing. That is why in a more banal but also important context, a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union would be wrong. I am against referendums in principle (though if one is called I vote) because governments are there to govern. Candidates get elected, or should, on the basis of their policies and what their parties stand for, or are perceived to. And some at least of that depends on how engaged the electorate are with the democratic process - how interested they are in what their elected representatives do on their behalf.
I don't know who elects the President of Germany, in the 1930s or now, but whoever does or did what did they think about Hindenberg's naming of Hitler Chancellor of Germany, apparently against his better judgment, when old and ill and perhaps under pressure? These things can happen in democracies.
A plebiscite, a referendum, is a platform for ranting demagogues. I'm against them.
Postscript: does anayone remember Al Stewart's history songs from the 1970s? Not being a historian, I learned a lot from them. There was one called "The Last Day of June 1934", which conotained the lines "On the night that Ernst Roehm died the voices rang out... grown strong like the joining of wills".
Yes. Think on. Democracy or demagoguery? Good faith or bad?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had a referendum on joining the Common Market, as it was then.
Most of us accepted because it was supposed to mean exactly what those two words said.
Instead, somehow, it means that foreign unelected nobodies are now telling us how to run our own country.
L9

Adrian Windisch said...

Its Godwin's law, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

Adrian Windisch said...

Godwin's Law http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

Rob Marchant said...

Hey, was unaware of Al Stewart's history songs - I'm a fan, so will check them out.

Anonymous said...

The Common Market referendum was not to join or not to join, as we were already members. It was to decide whether to stay in or to leave. I was disgusted by the sight of Anthony Wedgwood Benn and Michael Foot alongside Enoch Powell.

I would support the use of referendums like the one in Scotland, although the tartan tories have slanted the questions.

Anonymous said...

Politics makes for odd bedfellows. Both Tony Benn and Michael Foot were good friends of Enoch Powell.

Dennis Revell said...


*Hey Jane,

I'd never call you a NAZI.

That wouldn't be accurate.

I'd rather go with War-Mongering Zio-NAZI piece of shit.

Your fellow member of old of the English version of the German Workers Party,

Dennis Revell

TO: JanesTheOneZio-NAZI_POS**



*Comment not expected to be approved by the blog "author(ess)".

**POS = Piece Of Shit